John DiFool vs Kuniworth, A Battle for Russia AAR

[Kuniworth]

I play the germans and John take the soviets. With the new version 1.1 this is not an easy task for germans to win this.

TURN 1;

NORTH

Kaunas and Vilna falls. Heavy tank battles in Lithuania.

CENTER

Destruction of the bulge, Biyalostok falls and panzers advance on Minsk. Soviet airforce are run down by the panzer-spearheads.

SOUTH;

Army group south under Rundstedt destroys a large portion of the soviet airforce. A soviet tank army is destroyed and the german infantry corps are outside Lvov with the 17th Army almost completing encirclement from the south. The city is defended by a strength 5 tank army with T-34:s.

ROMANIA

Antonescu's forces and the 11th Army begin the march against the Prut River. Minor clashes as we try to cross it.

YUGOSLAVIA

Partisan activity in the croatin mountains.

At end of turn Slovakia, Hungary and Finland prepares for war. Mongolia declares support of the Soviet Union and Bulgaria declares neutrality.

[John DiFool the 2nd]

What else can we do at this stage but, "Run away!

Run away!"

I hope to form some sort of defense line further

east; thankfully the new lower supply levels for the

Jerries should slow them down a lot.

[Kuniworth]

June 29,

Finns join and almost dislodge the russian 23rd Army from Vyborg.

Armygroup North capture both Riga and Dvinsk destroying a tank army in the process.

On the central front Minsk holds to the astonishment of the german high command. Pavlov is doing a brave stand but the city will fall next turn.

In the south von Rundstedt's forces takes Lvov and reach the outskirts of Tarnopol. Russian tank army is lost as it tries to flee to the interior.

On the Romanian front almost all of Bessarabia has been liberated. Kishinev empty but we cannot occupy it.

[Kuniworth]

July 6,

Finns destroy the 23rd Russian army but can't find the strength to enter Vyborg.

Armygroup north races toward Pskov and stumble into Kuznetsov HQ, reducing it to 1.

Armygroup center finally takes Minsk and attack Mogilev which holds.

Armygroup south captures Tarnopol. Panzers and Luftwaffe scores a kill on a T-26 tank army in the pripet marsches.

In Romania Kishinev falls. The Red army is withdrawing behind the Dniepr, manning the old Stalin Line.

Yugoslavian partisans hard to kill, a new one appear in the Dalmatian mountains...

[Kuniworth]

So far I count 6-7 destroyed tank armies out of 13 available for the red army. That is a 50% loss in half a month.

[John DiFool the 2nd]

Yep-nothing I could do-any tank too close to the

front is doomed.

Miracle I saved that HQ (but it only has a rating of

3 big whoop). Only lost a couple of planes-Kuni

won't be seeing them for a LONG while...

So far virtually no reinforcements-I can only hope

the crappy German supply can slow them down enough.

[Kuniworth]

July 13,

more success for the axis forces.

The finns capture Vyborg and march to the outskirts of Leningrad. Russian Baltic Fleet shore bombards anything close to the coastline.

Armygroup North's offensive boggs down at Pskov. Panzers kill of couple of units but we cannot capture the city.

In the center an attack on Mogilev fails to pin down the russian 13th Army. Infantry ready to join the fighting on next turn. Brest-Litovsk still holds.

In the south probing attacks on Zhitomir.

Romanian front is running along the dniestr. We try to cross it in the north of Bessarabia with small success.

[ July 07, 2006, 02:36 PM: Message edited by: Kuniworth ]

[Kuniworth]

July 20th,

Rather slow advance this turn.

Finns are halted at the very gates of Leningrad, I think it's the 22nd Rifle Corps that block any advance.

Battle for Pskov continues. Panzers need infantry support before they can seize the city.

In the center Mogilev falls as expected, Vitebsk lightly assaulted.

In the south Zhitomir falls. Heavy russian forces outside Kiev. We drive south towards Uman.

On the romanian front Antonescu's forces cross the dneistr and begin flanking the old stalin line fortifications.

[John DiFool the 2nd]

Supply and some diehard units finally manage to slow

him down. Also got a good number of reinforcements

finally.

[Kuniworth]

July 27,

Supply is becoming a major problem. And also the fact that russians put up new armies faster than we can destroy them.

FINLAND;

22nd russian Rifle Corps down to 1 but holds the Leningrad front. If it falls I can use two attack directions on northern Leningrad and then the city will fall. Both sides know this so it's do or die battles.

NORTH;

Pskov falls in a combined panzer and infantry attack. All of Latvia occupied, we begin the marsch into Estonia.

CENTER;

The russians are massing between Velikiye Luki and Smolensk. We try brute tactics on Vitebsk but fail.

SOUTH;

Uman cleared but we can't enter the city. Russians are massing panzer and infantry around Kiev.

ROMANIA;

Stalin Line breached and Dniestr crossed without losses, the russian defence is in disarray. Attack on Odessa is imminent.

[Kuniworth]

Aug 3,

FINLAND;

Mannerheim withdraws back to Vyborg. The forward position can't be held.

NORTH;

Advances into Estonia and drive along the east sideof Lake Peipus towards Narva.

CENTER;

Vitebsk finally falls and the russian defensive line is breached. Slow progress.

SOUTH;

Uman captured, panzers race south towards Krivoy Rog and Nikopol. Massive russian build up around Kiev.

ROMANIA;

Assault on 9th Army outside Odessa. Whhole rtomanian armygroup is heading into the southern Ukraine.

YUGOSLAVIA;

More partisans pop up, very frustrating.

[JerseyJohn]

Great reading from both of you, enjoying it.

[Kuniworth]

Aug 10,

Progress is much slower.

FINLAND;

Advance on Petrozavodsk. Withdrawl on the karelian isthmus.

NORTH;

Narva falls, Estonia cut off. Advance to river Luga not far from Leningrad. Terrain is awful.

CENTER;

Smolensk falls and the first real russian defence line before Moscow has failed.

SOUTH;

Krivoy Rog captured. We are outside Nikopol mines.

ROMANIA;

Continuing attacks on Odessa suburbs. 9th Russian Army destroyed.

[Blashy]

This AAR needs screenshots

[Iron Ranger]

yea just what I was thinking

[Kuniworth]

Yes maybe will be able to post some next turn or maybe John will do it.

Anyway it's Aug 17,

Axis advance is really slow. Russians are forming solid lines.

FINLAND;

Not much action. Both sides are not particulary eager to assault into "death traps".

NORTH;

We reach Talinn which is guarded by a suicide corps.

CENTER;

Supply is a big issue, some units swing south to capture Gomel and develop a potential threat against Kiev. We also attack Bryansk.

SOUTH;

Romanians attack the last defenders of Odessa(7th Rifle Corps) and prepare the move on Kherson. Meanwhile we capture the mine at Nikopol and begin to reach the beaches of the Dniepr.

[John DiFool the 2nd]

Back.

I was worried at first when I didn't get any rein-

forcements for the first three turns, but I have an

almost continuous front now (with reserves ).

He ignored the extensive fortifications in front of

Kiev and is trying to outflank me in the south-I

don't think mines give you supply tho. Getting into

late August, he'll have about a month of good

weather to achieve a major breakthrough-we shall

see.

One thing I did that the real Russians didn't do is

run like hell to the east and not fight. I also

noticed Kuni didn't bother to wait a turn for

surrounded units to go to 0 supply, preferring to

kill them ASAP (probably to facilitate his advance)-

these units are now forming part of the

front in front of Moscow.

Here's a (slightly censored :cool: ) view of

the front near Smolensk (the city one of his

Panzers is sitting on):

I'm pretty much forced to have my front run NW to

SE to prevent units from sneaking through the gaps

if the line ran N-S.

[Kuniworth]

Aug 24,

The axis offensive is painfully slow due to supply-logistics. Everywhere there are shortages, meanwhile the Red Army is getting stronger everyday.

FINLAND;

Assault on Petrozavodsk posponed for now. Finnish fighter squadrons are intercepted by the red airforce. It's first sortie since week 1.

NORTH;

Talinn garrison destroyed, but we can't enter the city. However the city will be ours next turn and Estonia will be liberated.

CENTER;

Gomel garrison destroyed but we can't enter city. Otherwise it's calm.

SOUTH;

Odessa captured, we begin assaults on Zaphorzhe and Dnepropetrovsk to force a crossing of the Dniepr.

At end of turn frontline runs Talinn, Pskov, Velikiye Luki, Vitebsk, Smolensk, Bryansk, Gomel, Kiev and down along the Dniepr-river.

[Kuniworth]

Aug 31,

German supply is now so bad that the soldiers starves to death. The situation is a joke, I can't even imagine how it's gonna be when the mud comes.

FINLAND;

German and finnish air combine to punish a soviet fighterforce at Leningrad.

NORTH;

Talinn falls, meanwhile on the eastern side of Lake Peipus our forces starts crawling against Leningrad. Terrain is horrible and supply is non existant...you figure out the rest yourself.

CENTER;

Gomel falls to the bad-ass panzers. An assault on Bryansk leaves the garrison army reeling at strength 1.

SOUTH;

Denpropetrovsk falls. Romanians(who have lousy troops but 10 in supply) reach Kherson.

[Kuniworth]

Sep 7,

FINLAND;

Nothing new. Actually the finnish campaign plays out pretty historical, it's complete stallmate.

NORTH;

Move on Novgorod. Bad ass t-34tank entrenched there so our panzers hits and damage an army just north of the city. Russians are forming an defensive line from Novgorod up to Leningrad. Terrain will help them alot.

CENTER;

Bryansk falls and the whole line is given the order to march on the Velikiye Luki-Vyazma line. Our panzers are 4-star veterans and kills of units at will...we will need it.

South of Gomel the russians are blocking any attempt to swing south towards Kiev.

SOUTH;

Much of a stallmate.

T-34:s moving up to shore up the Dniepr-defenseline. We attack Zaphorozhe with awful results.

Romanians scratch a corps at Kherson but cant do much.

[Kuniworth]

Sep 14,

NORTH;

redeployments in the north. Advance on Leningrad impossible through the swamps due to lack of supply.

CENTER;

Axis hurls themselves at the Velikiye Luki-Vyazma defenseline. South of Vyazma 2 russian armies are destroyed and near Bryansk another one vanish. Soviets are defending Vyazma with a T-34 tank unit that is entrenched.

SOUTH;

Dniepr crossed! 2 Pz Corps obliterate the massed russian defenselines and make it across near Stalino.

Romanians are stuck at Kherson. Russians can't be dislodged.

[John DiFool the 2nd]

I'm awake now...interesting turn...(Sept. 21)

My tanks finally show themselves: I kill one tank,

get another down to 1 point (goodbye experience), a

third down to 6. Sure I'll lose my counterattackers

but it hurts him more to rebuild them than it does

me (loss of experience, lower MPP income, he has

fewer tanks to play with in terms of limits). My

battered airforce lands a few licks. And did I say

"mud" for the 21st?

[John DiFool the 2nd]

Well Kuni just emailed me saying that the scenario

is currently unbalanced in terms of supply-I had

pretty much stopped him (that and the mud) and his

low supply levels meant that hardly any of his armies

could move. Unfortunately despite the very enjoyable

last turn (above) I have to agree. I thought he

was waiting to repair his forces and that was why he

wasn't attacking me for a goodly portion of the

month of August. (con't)

[John DiFool the 2nd]

He had several alternatives: increase captured

Russian supply cities to 6, or introduce a whole

mess of Army-level (as opposed to Army Group) HQs

for both sides. The supply level of 6 would allow

his HQs to have supply of 10 AFTER the 6 turns it

would take (= 6 weeks) for the cities to rebuild

back to 6, so for Barbarossa that would likely work,

but in '42 and onwards it might benefit the Germans

too much.

I don't like the micromanagement hell of having 10-15

HQs running around, if we keep the current supply

levels of 5. I think the real problem here is

that the original supply rules were based on the

original SC2 scale, but Kuni's map is double the

original scale I believe. If supply wouldn't drop

off by one for each square between the supply

source and the unit in question, perhaps dropping

by one for every OTHER square. But that would be

a Hubert thing.

My suggestion: up supply levels to 6 for the Axis,

give them 4 HQs (Russia 6), but have a major

supply event in early Dec. '41 which porks Axis

supply in all captured cities, and similar (tho

less extreme as the years pass) events for all

future Decembers/first snow turns. That would

mean Barbarossa will be a race more than the

slogging match we had-can the Germans get to

Moscow before General Winter can save the Russians?

And the winter would give the Russians a breather/

chance to counterattack, which is historical.

In my test game I easily gained ground as the Axis

throughout the winter (tho only taking Moscow and

Stalingrad once the weather turned to clear). So

I would have supply go to 1 in Dec '41, 3 in Dec

'42, and 4 for all following winters.

As for the HQs, I don't think a '42 offensive into

the Caucasus will be possible with just one Axis

HQ: the other two pretty much have to guard the

north and central parts of the front, leaving too

much for the third one to do. I would only give

the Axis the 4th HQ sometime in May '42 tho, if

the limit can stay at 4 so you can sack commanders

(see below).

Oh and one thing I really did like: you can sack

HQs with poor ratings, get a few MPPs back when

you disband, and get someone better.

[Kuniworth]

Maybe the easiest sugestions are the best. Increase supply to 6 to give german HQ:s a supply of 10, but keep everything else.

Plus convert the Artillery unit to Garrison/anti-partisan groups.

Maybe convert the russian Airborne corps to paratroopers with a jump capability of 2 hexes and weak combat values?